• Explain the procedure of daily attendance recording throughout the school year except during the FTE periods.
• This procedure is also to track instructional time. We want to ensure that the student is getting the required number of days of instructional time.

• Teachers should take attendance after the Pledge of Allegiance and the Recitation of the Preamble.
• Teachers log into the school SIS to take attendance. 
• The substitutes will have to provide a paper roster with attendance. The administration assistant, operations specialists or receptionist can print the paper roster. 
• The operations specialist (front office/receptionist) or designee will be responsible for communicating any student attendance issues to the operations specialist (back office) and school operations manager. 
• Ensuring daily attendance is recorded in all school information system(s) is the scope of the operation specialist (back office).

• Employees responsible for complying with this procedure are the operations specialist (back office).
• Peripheral participants include the operations specialist (front office)/receptionist who gives the sign-in/sign-out sheets to the operations specialist (back office), any others who collect attendance notes from parents and turn them in to the front office, and the teachers who take daily attendance in their classrooms on the SIS.
• The following staff members will be trained to manage the daily attendance recording procedure:
  • Operations Specialists (back office)
  • Operations Specialist (front office/Receptionist)
  • Administrative Assistant
• In the event the operations specialist (back office) is out of the office, the school operations manager will appoint a backup to oversee the procedure.

• Access to Focus – operations specialist (back office), operations specialist (front office)/receptionist, and administrative assistant should all have access to Focus. User settings and permissions to Focus will be determined by the school leaders.
• Access to school based email account and the school attendance email link (i.e. attendance@_______coastclassical.org) to receive emails from parents and teachers forwarding notes pertaining to student absences.
• Software needs – Microsoft Excel.
• A file drawer or designated place to archive attendance rosters and daily sign-in/sign-out sheets.

• Policy and Family Handbook on the school website for reference when questions arise about attendance requirements.
• Sign-in/Sign-out sheets – these reside at the reception desk so parents may use them to sign students in and out.  They are used daily to record tardies and early checkouts.
• Vendor Sign-in/Sign-out sheets - a separate sign in/out sheet should be used for vendors visiting the school for various purposes (speech therapists, occupational therapist, etc.). Include name, company name, title, date, time in, time out, etc.

The following applies if school hours are from 8:00 am to 3:00 pm..

Attendance codes on Focus vary per district:

• JXC/JXCE:
  • T (Tardy Excused) - applies to any student who signed in after 7:55 am and for whom a parent or doctor’s excuse note was received. 
  • L (Tardy Unexcused) - used to record a daily tardy for a student.  Usually attached to a student’s record by a teacher taking daily attendance or can be entered by the registrar.
  • E (Excused) - used to adjust an unexcused absence that has previously been recorded to an excused absence when a parent or doctor’s note has been received.  
  • U (Unexcused) - used to record a daily absence for a student.  Usually attached to a student’s record by a teacher taking daily attendance or can be entered by the registrar.
  • S (School-Related Activity) - used to record an excused absence due to a school-related activity. 
  • P (Present)
  • C (Check Out) - absent
  • O (Suspension)
• NCA:
  • T (Tardy Excused) - applies to any student who signed in after 8:05 am and for whom a parent or doctor’s excuse note was received. 
  • L (Tardy Unexcused) - used to record a daily tardy for a student.  Usually attached to a student’s record by a teacher taking daily attendance or can be entered by the registrar.
  • E (Excused) - used to adjust an unexcused absence that has previously been recorded to an excused absence when a parent or doctor’s note has been received.  
  • U (Unexcused) - used to record a daily absence for a student.  Usually attached to a student’s record by a teacher taking daily attendance or can be entered by the registrar.
  • S (School-Related Activity) - used to record an excused absence due to a school-related activity. 
  • P (Present)
  • C (Check Out) - absent
  • O (Suspension)
• TCCA:
  • U (Unexcused) – used to record a daily absence for a student.  Usually attached to a student’s record by a teacher taking daily attendance or can be entered by the registrar.
  • T (Tardy) – applies to any student who is signed in after 7:55 am or signed out before 3:00 pm.
  • TE (Tardy Excused) – applies to any student who signed in after 7:55 am and for whom a parent or doctor’s excuse note was received.    
  • ED (Early Dismissal) – applies to any student who was present at the beginning of the school day and subsequently checked out by the parent.  This code is used regardless if the school receives a parent note or doctor’s note for the ED.
  • E (Excused) – used to adjust an unexcused absence that has previously been recorded to an excused absence when a parent or doctor’s note has been received.  
  • U (Unexcused) – used to record a daily absence for a student.  Usually attached to a student’s record by a teacher taking daily attendance or can be entered by the registrar.

 
(Refer to school handbook for specific guidelines about what constitutes appropriate documentation for any excused tardy or absence).

• Ask the principal/head of school and dean of students to speak with teachers who are continually late with their attendance taking if necessary.
• 8:00 am - Teachers should take attendance 
  • NCA:  8:05 am
• 8:30 am - Teachers enter their attendance in the SIS system.
• Upper School teachers should take attendance each period and enter in the SIS system.
• Operations Specialist (back office) runs attendance reports throughout the day.

• Collect signed and dated attendance rosters for classes where there were substitutes and enter in SIS.

• In SIS, the operations specialist (back office) or designee should review absences entered by teachers:
  • Attendance > Daily Reports review all absences entered by teachers
• If the student is absent, the absence should be entered as unexcused absences.  
• The the operations specialist (back office) or designee, not teacher, enters the absence as excused or unexcused.
• Any parent correspondence or messages regarding student's absence must be forwarded to the the operations specialist (back office) .

• Collect the sign-in sheet from the the operations specialist (front office)/receptionist.  
• Compare the sign-in sheet to the list of Unexcused absences and edit to change any Unexcused absences recorded for late students to a Tardy.

• Add a Tardy daily status code for students who were signed in late if teachers did not record an Unexcused absence.
• Return the sign-in sheet to the the operations specialist (front office)/receptionist for any other parents to use throughout the remainder of the day for signing in.  
• Tardies occurring after this step is accomplished will be updated at the end of the day.

• Open Focus.  
• From the home page, top toolbar, click Attendance > Teacher Completion.
• When the page opens, click on the first teacher’s Homeroom link to open their attendance roster.  
• Take attendance accordingly. 
• Close the roster when you see a green check mark appear on the left.  
• Repeat the process for every teacher.

• If a student has at least five (5) unexcused absences within a calendar month, or ten (10) days out of ninety (90) days, the student’s homeroom teacher shall report to the principal that there may be a pattern of absence existing. After this referral, the principal will consider referring the student to the School Based Leadership Team (SBLT). The SBLT is a “child study team” for the purposes of satisfying the requirements of § 1003.26, Florida Statutes. If the SBLT finds a pattern of nonattendance, the team will meet with the parent to identify potential remedies; the principal must notify the school district’s charter school office of the identified pattern of nonattendance. If the initial meeting with the parent does not resolve the problem, the SBLT shall implement the following pursuant to Florida Statutes:
  • Frequent attempts at communication between the teacher and the family.
  • Evaluation for alternative education programs.
  • Attendance contracts.
• The SBLT may also, but is not required to, implement other interventions that include referral to other agencies for family services or changes to the learning environment. Additionally, legal authorities will be notified if the problem is not corrected.
• If the parent refuses to participate in the remedial strategies because he or she believes those strategies are unnecessary or inappropriate, the parent may appeal to the principal.

• On the attendance recording page that opens, select period 09.
• Select Unexcused absence.
• Select the correct date from the calendar.
• Click the radio button to select All of the students whose names appear and click Submit Absences.  
• The system will update the attendance for the selected students and give you a dialog box letting you know the attendance was updated. 
• Close the dialog box.

• Repeat previous steps to enter T (Tardy) codes for late students.

• Print rosters from Focus for any teachers who show on Google calendar as being slated to be out the following day.
• From Focus home page, click on Attendance > Verification Sheets/Sub Rosters. 
• From the dropdown menu, select the teacher(s) names you need, Period 09, enter the next day’s date in the date range, Mode: one page per class, Extra: print teacher signature line.  
• Click Print.  
• When the report is run, print the attendance rosters and give to the the operations specialist (front office)/receptionist to give to the substitutes the next morning.
• Create a calendar to document staff PTO, substitute/pool teacher assignments, etc. Calendar can be a shared Google calendar or shared Google Doc. 

• 2:30 pm - the operations specialist (front office)/receptionist will file the sign-in, sign-out sheets.
• Please retain documents indefinitely. 

• Sign-in sheet will need to be reconciled for any students who signed in after the attendance was recorded that morning using previous steps to correct previously recorded attendance depending on what the teacher recorded as a daily attendance code. To reconcile the sign-in sheet on Focus, refer to step below using a T (Tardy) for the absence code instead of ED (Early Dismissal).

• From the home page, select Attendance > Add Absences.   
• When the page opens, click the Search button at the bottom.  
• A list of all currently enrolled students will populate. 
• Select the students who are on the sign-out sheet.  
• Enter Period 09, select ED (Early Dismissal), copy/paste the note you used for the SIS entry, select the appropriate date from the calendar, click Submit Absences.  
• The system will update and give you a dialog box of all the students for whom the attendance was updated.  
• Close the dialog box.

• Staple the sign-in/sign-out sheets together and be sure the date is written on them. 
• File in your attendance drawer.  
• If audited during any given school year, the auditors will ask to see those sheets.

• All sheets pertaining to attendance taking are archived at the end of each school year and need to be kept indefinitely.